For the past four years, anytime we wanted to take a break from the great outdoors (whether it was too cold or too hot or too wet or whatever), we’ve retreated to Athena Spa, a two-story refuge in midtown near Madison, where they let us take over one of the floors and roam free. We’d hang out reading in the Hwangto dome sauna or inhaling the burning, herbaceous steam in the wet room or sipping drinks and nibbling tasties in the lounge or getting the kinks worked out of our backs and shoulders and butts and calves by their talented masseuses. All naked, of course. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen six or eight or a dozen New Yorkers, many of whom have never met before, walk in off the street, take off every stitch they’re wearing, and luxuriate in the combined bliss of pampering for the body and sparkling conversation for the soul.

Well…nothing lasts forever, alas, and after more than a decade of chasing winter chills and unlocking clenched trapeziuses, Athena is closing its doors at the end of July. It’s the classic Manhattan story: they lost their lease. The owners are directing customers to another spa further uptown, but…it’s not the same. Not even close.

So we returned this week for a farewell bash. Toasted the old place with champagne and SkinnyGirl…brought some Amy Tan, some Stephen King, some Hard Case Crime, some PREACHER…brought together members originally from the UK and Poland, from L.A. and Atlanta and Ozone Park, an NYU frosh and an MIT grad, a downtown artist and an upper west side novelist, and enjoyed four hours or so of unmitigated pleasure.

Goodbye, Athena. You were special, and will sorely be missed. (And we mean “sorely” literally.)

Preacher by Garth Ennis?? Classic comics series. I’ve always held that the Da Vinci Code was a ripoff; it had the same elements but Preacher had the whole grail conspiracy thing done both smarter and funnier.

RIP to your spa. Sad when places you like close down. Looks very nice. Seems Asian-style like the ones here in China, everyone is cool with being naked but it’s gender segregated. Any European-style coed spas in NYC?

I mentioned it before but in light of Athena closing a guess it bears (bares) mentioning again. Terlam Spa is clothing optional on Sundays (and perhaps soon Saturdays and eventually 7 days a week). It’s a bit out of town (Fords NJ), but easily accessible via NJTransit for Penn Station.

Don’t know if you’d know but…how liberal are they at Athena regarding ‘behaviour’? I understand that there isn’t really anyone around sometimes but are they lax about fooling around in their facilities? Thinking about bringing my gf before they close 😉

If you come for a private couples massage, you can probably do whatever you want in the privacy of the massage room after they leave you alone to relax once the massage ends. I’m not sure you’d want to fool around in the high heat of the sauna or steam room, but again, if you’re there by yourself, no one will say anything.

Have you been having a long spell of bad weather over there in NY? Because it’s over a fortnight since we’ve seen any outdoor coed topless action, and I for one am starting to feel withdrawal symptoms.

Don’t know what the reason is, but they’re very different. The other one is down a flight of stairs, which starts things off on a less welcoming note, and then it’s all on one floor rather than two separate floors, so there is no way for us to have one floor all to ourselves. Just not the same, that’s all.